On a brisk January morning at Pine Ridge Prep, children in matching red shirts and black pants considered what to build with the blocks before them. A spaceship was the consensus idea among the 3- and 4-year-old boys and girls.

A layer of frost covered the roofs — some dilapidated — of houses around the preschool in East Topeka. The three-classroom school caters to young residents of Pine Ridge Manor, the city’s largest public housing district.

It is, by every measure, a success. In five years, it has expanded from one room to three, granting 51 students an early childhood education they might not otherwise have received. It has won state and national awards. The Market Street survey said “more could, and should, be done to improve and expand” Pine Ridge Prep and similar schools around town.

“Anything we can do to better prepare these kids is important,” said Trey George, executive director of the Topeka Housing Authority. “We’re all focused on creating a stronger workforce for Topeka.”

It is here that Topeka’s cradle-to-careers pipeline begins. If Topeka is to cultivate and keep homegrown talent, it must educate its residents, especially those in poorer neighborhoods, the survey found. If youngsters are educated here, they will stay here and improve the workforce, the thinking goes.

Sixteen-year-old Chieko Zimmerman would like to do exactly that. She’s a junior at Topeka High School and aspiring second-grade teacher. She often spends two and a half hours of her school day teaching at Topeka elementary schools.

“We’ll get there around 12:30 p.m. and help out in the classroom, do whatever teachers need us to help with,” she said. “So it’s a lot of actual interaction with students.”

Zimmerman is teaching in the district where she was taught as part of the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers, a program for Topeka Public Schools upperclassmen and a crucial component of the cradle-to-careers pipeline. When asked if she plans to stay in the district, her eyes widened: “I would absolutely love to.”

Melissa Seacat has headed the TCALC program’s teaching pathway for the past two years. She started with one student, now has 10, and wants more. She has seen graduates go on to study education at Kansas colleges and expects many to return to Topeka.

“They’re going to come back here, feel safe and wanted in the district,” she said. “They may go somewhere else for that first job but it’s always going to be in the back of their mind that they can come back here.”

Seventeen-year-old Zach Young, another TCALC student, has his own aspirations. The Topeka West senior intends to be either a general practitioner or cardiologist. Through TCALC, he became certified in CPR and first aid.

“It’s very hands-on learning. Not too many lectures, so it’s not too boring,” he said.

In the spring and summer of 2014, Washburn Tech — in collaboration with the Kansas Department of Commerce and GO Topeka — offered a training initiative known as M-Tech. For eight to 10 weeks in 2014, adults worked eight-hour days Monday through Friday. In exchange, they earned 13 college credit hours, workplace skills and the attention of area manufacturers, such as Goodyear, Frito-Lay and Mars.

It represented the last step on the cradle-to-careers pipeline.

Tim Clothier, business and industry coordinator at Washburn Tech, said 74 people took part in the program. Half completed it; nearly all received at least one certification. But there was a problem. For many of the graduates, there was no job waiting for them at the end.

“You’ve got these trained employees, you’ve vetted them through a lot of training, helped them build a résumé in addition to qualifying them, and at the end, if there’s not a job, some go off to another industry,” Clothier said.

Funding in the form of a modest $160,000 grant ran out and, after just two semesters, M-Tech ended. Reviving it, as the Market Street survey recommends, would require bringing the city’s largest manufacturers back to the table, Clothier said. If the need for employees is there, it could be done.

“You see an ebb and flow of those training opportunities when the need is there,” said Barbara Stapleton, vice president of workforce and education at Go Topeka. “It may not be something that always runs.”

Clothier said Washburn toyed with the idea of expanding M-Tech to the city’s high schools, making it available to junior and senior students. Many of M-Tech’s participants were out-of-work adults well past the usual college age.

“One of the things we’ve heard from employers is the need for essential skills,” Stapleton said, “not only with students but also adults who have been in the workforce in the past.”

Area manufacturers are frustrated by a deficit of basic skills in the city’s workforce. Too many employees, they say, lack professionalism and integrity, fail to arrive at work or dress appropriately.

“One of the really big things that we hear from employers is there are individuals who don’t realize there’s room for improvement,” she said, “because it’s not something that’s been taught. We need to change that as a culture.”

Programs like TCALC can do so at the high school level. M-Tech did at the college and adult level.

“We expect a very high level of professionalism and leadership skills from our students,” said Seacat, the TCALC teacher.

At Pine Ridge Prep, a family services director works with parents to teach skills to those who were never in the cradle-to-careers pipeline or have careened off.

“We do a lot to get our parents involved,” said director Katie Englehart. There are monthly family nights, public speakers, breakfasts and bonding. “Anything we can do to get them in here.”

Practitioners and participants in the cradle-to-careers pipeline believe talent in Topeka exists like oil in an oil field — in abundance but underground, resting idly. The pipeline extracts it, refines it, puts it to use.

“It’s a very long-term process,” Stapleton said, “but there are a lot of things that are aligning and occurring that are beneficial to Topeka employers and our community.”

Potential actions to develop homegrown talent

Establish a collective impact partnership that includes all education and training providers, as well as nonprofits, social service providers, faith-based groups and the business community.

Pursue public and private resources to professionally staff and operate a partnership “backbone” entity.

Gather student-level data to gauge effectivenss of programs and to guide decision-making.

Prioritize services to low-incomea nd at-risk populations where needs are greatest and national funding streams are more available.

Wor wiht private-sector partners to provide training, marketing and support for local students within career pathways identified to offer entryway into careers.